July 25, 2012 12:30pm EDTJuly 25, 2012 11:56am EDTDanica Patrick is doing a solid job in her first full season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, but TV analysts and former champions Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree say she's in for a rude awakening in Sprint Cup racing.

While they think Danica Patrick is doing a solid job in the Nationwide Series, two former NASCAR champions are far from sold on how well she will perform in the Sprint Cup Series next year.

In fact, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree, both color analysts for ESPN, believe Patrick will struggle when she moves to Sprint Cup.

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Patrick, in her first full NASCAR season after two part-time stints with JR Motorsports, is ninth in the Nationwide standings driving the team's No. 7 car. She has one top-10 finish this season and has finished on the lead lap in nine of 18 races with seven finishes of 21st or worse. She trails points leader Elliott Sadler by 232 points.

By comparison, JR Motorsports teammate Cole Whitt, also a rookie, is seventh in the standings with three top-five and eight top-10s. He is 125 points behind Sadler.

"I think she's doing a great job in the Nationwide Series," said Petree, a former Sprint Cup crew chief and team owner. "I think she's going to struggle big time in the Cup Series regardless.

"I'm sure they've had good cars (at JR Motorsports), (but) I'm not sure they have got the best cars to be comparing Danica to (Ricky) Stenhouse or Sadler. I'm not sure where that team is right now performance-wise."

As part of her transition from IndyCar to NASCAR, Patrick has driven in three Cup races this year for Stewart-Haas Racing. She crashed and finished 38th in the season-opening Daytona 500 and finished 31st at Darlington and 36th at Charlotte, completing both races.

"The jump to the Cup side is going to be tough," said Jarrett, the 1999 Sprint Cup champion and a winner of 32 Cup races. "The cars are different. The horsepower is different. The number of people there on a weekly basis that run really, really good is going to be different, so results are going to be hard to come by."

But moving to Cup next season, even though she hasn't had the best of seasons, is not necessarily a bad idea, Jarrett said.

"To say, 'Is she ready (for Cup)?' That is something that she and Tony (Stewart) have to decide, and make sure on and they're obviously committed to do that," Jarrett said. "She's very focused on becoming better.

"Would it benefit her to stay in the Nationwide Series another year? I'm not sure that it would. If she's going to make that move, I would say she has an understanding of what it's about (and what she needs to do to) go on and get there and learn there."

Petree, who won two Cup championships with driver Dale Earnhardt, said watching the 30-year-old IndyCar Series transplant fight her racecar at Chicagoland Speedway last week was a sign that she was "wheeling" the car as hard as possible.

It's likely that she will have to do that again in the remaining 15 Nationwide races as well as the seven Cup events still on her schedule this year.

"She is doing things that impress me every week," Petree said. "And she is getting better and better. The Nationwide Series is very competitive.

"There are a lot of great drivers in it. But when you make that next step (to Cup), it's going to be a big one. I'm very skeptical about how she'll do when she makes that step full time."